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THE    FUNCTIONS 


OF    THE 


BOOK    CLUB 


AN    ADDRESS    BY 


Henry   H.  Harper 


AT    THE 


ROWFANT  CLUB,  CLEVELAND,  OHIO 


Saturday  Evening,  December  19,  1908 


(..''-      ",     "  .^'  ^i 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/functionsofbookcOOharprich 


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THE    FUNCTIONS 
OF  THE  BOOK  CLUB 

By  Henry  H.  Harper 

TKBASURBR  OF  THE  BIBLIOPHILE   SOCIETY,  BOSTON 

Mr,  Presidenty  and  fellow-members  of  the  Row- 
fant  Cluhy  and  of  the  fraternity  of  bookloverSy  — 
It  is  a  very  great  pleasure,  I  assure  you,  to  be 
here  as  the  representative  of  one  book  club,  the 
guest  of  another,  and  a  member  of  both.  It 
is  pleasing,  also,  to  find  here  a  number  of  your 
members  who  are  members  of  the  club  which  I 
have  the  honor  to  represent ;  as  well  as  members 
of  the  Caxton  Club,  and  fellow-members  of  the 
Grolier  Club.  This  denotes  a  sort  of  **  com- 
munity of  interest"  among  the  book  clubs,  and 
it  is  gratifying  to  know  that  such  a  thing  can 
exist  outside  of  the  Harriman  system  of  rail- 
roads, and  so  quietly  as  not  to  have  attracted 
the  notice  of  the  head  of  the  present  Adminis- 
tration at  Washington. 

In  appearing  before  a  gathering  of  such 
apparently  good-humored  comrades,  I  am  sen- 
sible of  renewed  regrets  that  I  could  not  have 

[I] 


ivi8566* 


been  a:  natural-born  entertainer;   but  if  I  have 
ever  been  accused  of  being  funny,  it  was  cer- 
tainly npt .  iri:  the  sense  of  being  a  fun-maker. 
However,  when  Mr.  Swasey  invited  me  to  come 
to  Cleveland  he  was  kind  enough  merely  to  say 
that  the  members  of  the  Rowfant  Club  would 
like  to  hear  a  few  remarks  upon  book  clubs 
and  matters  pertaining  thereto.     It  is  therefore 
my  purpose  to  make  what  might  be  termed  a 
personal-experience  talk.    The  subject  in  hand 
is  too  intensely  practical  to  admit  of  anything 
other   than   a   plain   business   talk.     New   ac- 
quaintances  have    sometimes   asked   what   my 
line  of  business  is.     A  number  of  years  ago  I 
organized  a  corporation,  of  which  I  arbitrarily 
made  myself  president,  but  as  I  found  the  busi- 
ness  was   interfering   with    my   game   of  golf 
(which  is  none  too  good  at  best),  I  decided  to 
give  up  the  business.     It  proved  a  costly  ven- 
ture, because   the   stockholders   complained  of 
not  getting  any  profits,  so  I  had  to  buy  up  all  the 
stock  in  order  to  get  rid  of  my  job.    Since  then 
The  Bibliophile  Society  has  given  me  a  pretty 
steady  job  —  enough  work  to  keep  me  out  of 
mischief  most  of  the  time.     A  moderate  sense 
of  humor  is  to  be  accredited  to  a  Chicago  pub- 
lisher who  remarked  to  an  acquaintance  of  mine 

[2] 


a  few  years  ago  that  he  heard  that  I  had  made 
a  fortune  out  of  The  BibHophile  Society  and  had 
retired  from  active  business.  He  was  partly 
mistaken  in  this,  because  I  retired  from  active 
business  before  I  made  my  fortune  out  of  The 
BibHophile  Society. 

It  gives  one  a  great  pull  to  be  treasurer  of  a 
book  club,  especially  a  club  which  collects  no 
regular  annual  dues  from  the  members;  be- 
cause the  treasurer  has  the  first  chance  at  lending 
the  club  money  when  it  needs  it,  which  is  most 
of  the  time.  It  is,  moreover,  one  of  the  few 
special  privileges  in  office  of  which  no  one  seems 
to  be  jealous. 

Such  suggestions  as  I  may  offer  along  the  lines 
of  publication  work  will  perhaps  not  be  regarded 
as  presumptuous,  inasmuch  as  Mr.  Swasey  par- 
ticularly requested  that  I  should  say  something 
which  might  stimulate  the  members  of  the  club 
to  greater  activity  in  the  Hne  of  pubHcation. 
Furthermore,  as  a  member  of  this  club  I  feel  it 
my  privilege  and  my  duty  to  offer  any  seemingly 
advisable  suggestions  in  the  matter  of  promot- 
ing the  interests  of  the  club. 

You  have  a  well-devised  and  successful  plan 
of  providing  entertainment  for  the  resident 
members,  in  the  way  of  Saturday  evening  *'Club 

[3] 


Affairs,"  and  I  see  no  reason  why  a  similar  ar- 
rangement could  not  be  applied  to  the  publica- 
tions. As  I  understand  it,  some  member,  or 
group  of  members,  becomes  individually  re- 
sponsible for  your  club  entertainments,  and 
for  this  reason  they  are  successful.  It  strikes 
me  that  an  effective  working  plan  would  be  to 
determine  upon  issuing  one  or  two  publications 
yearly,  and  lay  the  work  out  for  two  or  three 
years  in  advance.  It  usually  requires  from  one 
to  three  years  to  prepare  a  publication  and 
finish  it  for  delivery  to  the  members,  and  it  is 
therefore  advisable  to  keep  this  work  outlined 
well  ahead. 

It  is  well,  I  think,  to  avoid  having  too  many 
committees,  and  too  many  members  on  a  com- 
mittee. Too  much  system  and  red  tape  are 
decided  hindrances  to  the  work  of  a  book  club. 
It's  better  to  have  less  committee  work  and 
more  individual  work;  for  what's  everybody's 
business  is  usually  nobody's  business.  It  is 
perhaps  a  true  saying  that  "two  heads  are 
better  than  one,"  but  the  adage  does  not  say 
that  five  or  six  heads  are  better  than  one.  I 
have  observed  that  the  best  working  committee 
in  a  book  club  is  a  committee  of  one. 

The  publication  committee,  as  a  body,  could 

[4] 


decide  upon  two  or  three  works  for  publication ; 
then  appoint  some  individual  (preferably  a 
member  of  that  committee)  who  would  be  will- 
ing to  assume  the  responsibility  of  preparing 
the  work  for  the  press.  This  would  necessitate 
the  employment  of  proper  editorial  talent  and 
exercising  a  general  supervision  of  the  work  of 
preparing  the  copy,  with  introductory  remarks, 
notes,  etc.  The  editor,  who  may,  or  may  not, 
be  a  member  of  the  club,  would  be  answerable 
only  to  the  person  having  the  work  in  charge. 

After  the  "copy"  is  ready  for  the  printer  it 
could  then  be  turned  over  to  another  member 
who  would  become  responsible  for  the  selec- 
tion and  preparation  of  suitable  illustrative 
material,  as  well  as  the  selection  of  the  paper,  — 
which  should  always  be  of  the  handmade  va- 
riety. It  costs  but  little  more  for  each  copy 
issued,  and  is  infinitely  more  satisfactory  to  the 
booklover. 

Let  the  member  having  charge  of  the  illustra- 
tions be  guided  by  his  own  individual  judgment 
as  to  what  sort  and  how  much  illustrative 
material  is  to  be  used ;  also  as  to  how  it  shall  be 
reproduced,  —  whether  by  etching,  engraving, 
photogravure  or  other  photographic  process,  — 
always  omitting  the  half  tone  process  plates  in 

[5] 


fine  bookmaking.  While  this  work  is  in  progress 
the  manuscript  should  be  placed  in  the  hands 
of  a  third  member  who  would  become  respon- 
sible for  seeing  it  through  the  press.  This  would 
involve  the  detail  of  choosing  the  printer,  select- 
ing the  type,  having  specimen  pages  made,  and 
after  deciding  upon  spacing  and  margins,  obtain- 
ing definite  cost  estimates.  There  would  be 
proofs  to  examine,  and  a  considerable  amount 
of  detail  would  fall  upon  the  member  taking 
the  responsibility  of  following  the  work  through 
the  process  of  composition  and  printing.  Of 
course  if  there  is  any  one  member  who  has  time 
and  inclination  to  assume  all  of  these  duties, 
it  would  simplify  matters  greatly. 

Let  it  be  understood  that  meagre  economy  has 
no  place  in  fine  bookmaking,  and  no  reasonable 
expense  should  be  spared.  There  is  a  super- 
abundance of  cheap  commercial  books,  and  in 
order  to  make  our  club  books  stand  distinctly 
apart  and  above  these,  both  labor  and  expense 
must  be  bestowed  upon  them  with  equal  freedom. 

It  is  no  undue  compliment  to  say  that  you 
have  in  this  club  an  abundance  of  talent  and 
ample  means  to  rival  the  work  of  any  book  club 
in  this  country,  or  in  the  world,  and  in  order 
to  do  this,  all  you  need  is  to  bestir  yourselves 

[6] 


into  the  necessary  activity.  I  find  that  Mr. 
Swasey  was  correct  when  he  wrote  me,  —  ''You 
will  find  here  a  splendid  lot  of  men,  thoroughly 
appreciative  of  good  books  and  high  ideals. '' 

I  trust  it  will  be  understood  that  anything  I 
say  in  regard  to  the  objects  and  past  achieve- 
ments of  The  Bibliophile  Society  is  offered 
merely  as  information,  and  is  not  to  be  con- 
strued as  vanity  or  vainglorious  boasting.  It 
is  neither  necessary  nor  desirable  to  recount  the 
virtues  of  our  work  —  the  books  themselves 
furnish  the  best  evidence  of  their  own  merits 
or  demerits.  I  will  modify  this,  however,  in 
its  application  to  a  single  statement:  we  feel 
what  is  perhaps  an  excusable  pride  in  the  fact 
that  most  of  our  publications  are  the  first  printed 
editions  of  MSS.  of  great  value,  and  of  recog- 
nized literary  and  historic  worth,  —  all  protected 
by  copyright.  In  the  few  publications  that  are 
reprints  we  have  usually  been  able  to  add  con- 
siderable new  material,  —  enough  to  justify  new 
editions.  We  have  been  singularly  fortunate  in 
having  been  the  beneficiaries  of  Mr.  Bixby's 
constant  and  unexampled  munificence.  My  ob- 
ject in  narrating  our  ambitions  and  experiences 
somewhat  in  detail  is  that  you  may  perhaps 
profit  in  some  measure  thereby. 

■    [7] 


For  the  first  two  or  three  years  The  BibHophile 
Society  had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  getting 
editors  and  printers  to  do  their  work  as  we 
wanted  it  done.  Editors  sometimes  have  arbi- 
trary ideas  about  technical  matters  not  coming 
directly  within  their  editorial  functions.  Then 
the  printers  had  their  own  notions  as  to  how 
the  text  should  be  arranged  and  punctuated. 
Some  of  them  objected  to  printing  a  page  with- 
out the  conventional  running  headline,  simply 
because  it  was  not  in  accordance  with  their 
usual  custom.  They  objected  to  setting  quota- 
tion marks  outside  of  the  punctuation  marks, 
merely  because  they  had  never  done  it  in  that 
way.  One  printer  decHned  to  undertake  the 
first  publication  we  made  —  The  Odes  And 
Epodes  Of  Horace  —  because  he  did  n't  want 
to  do  the  work  as  we  wanted  it  done.  He  did  n't 
like  our  plans,  and  said  the  publication  could 
not  be  a  success.  He  said  he  had  been  making 
books  for  twenty  years,  and  he  did  n't  propose 
to  accept  advice  or  suggestions  from  anybody. 
If  he  should  live  twenty  years  longer,  he  will 
perhaps  be  making  books  with  but  little  better 
knowledge  of  the  art  than  he  had  when  he  first 
began.  When  the  publication  was  finished, 
however,  he  was  frank  enough  to  come  to  us 

[8 


and  express  his  regrets  at  not  having  taken  the 
work,  —  the  printing  of  which  adds  lustre  to 
the  well  earned  fame  of  The  Riverside  Press. 

We  took  the  stand  at  the  beginning  that  we 
wanted  our  work  done  in  a  certain  way,  and  as 
long  as  we  were  paying  for  it,  we  wanted  it 
exactly  as  we  wanted  it.  If  we  were  especially 
interested  in  promoting  the  reputation  of  any 
particular  editor  or  printer,  then  we  should  be 
willing  that  our  work  bear  the  impress  of  his 
individual  ideas ;  but  as  long  as  the  books  were 
to  be  made  by  ourselves  and  for  ourselves  we 
were  the  ones  to  be  satisfied  or  dissatisfied,  as 
the  case  might  be.  We  have  always  applied 
these  principles  to  our  work,  no  matter  how 
prominent  the  names  of  the  editors  and  printers 
might  be. 

We  started  off  in  our  first  publication  with 
the  biggest  kind  of  a  row  on  our  hands.  The 
editor  of  the  notes  and  English  translations  had 
prepared  nearly  a  thousand  pages  of  manu- 
script when  we  discovered  that  his  treatment  of 
the  material  was  entirely  out  of  harmony  with 
our  plans,  and  that  the  English  was  in  many 
instances  far  below  the  required  standard  for 
such  a  scholarly  work.  Unhappily  for  me  it 
fell  to  my  lot  to  be  made  the  battering  ram  in  the 

[9] 


unpleasant  task  of  writing  the  editor  and  tell- 
ing him  wherein  his  style  would  have  to  be 
changed  to  meet  our  requirements.  I  per- 
formed this  duty  in  as  gentle  a  manner  as  I 
possibly  could,  but  he  replied  very  curtly  that 
the  manuscript  was  written  just  as  he  wanted 
it,  and  that  it  would  have  to  be  printed  exactly 
as  it  was  written.  The  final  result  was  that  it 
was  all  re-written  by  other  hands,  and  after 
paying  the  first  editor  the  stipulated  price  for 
his  work  he  withdrew  from  the  undertaking. 
We  have  yet  to  find  an  editor  of  such  lofty  name 
and  scholarly  accomplishments  that  his  work 
will  be  accepted  and  passed  at  its  face  value 
without  censorship  or  suggestion.  This  is  a 
right  we  always  reserve. 

If  an  author,  or  an  editor,  or  a  printer,  is 
producing  an  original  piece  of  work  upon  which 
his  own  reputation  is  to  rest,  then  his  latitude 
should  be  unrestrained;  but  if  another  person 
or  organization  is  to  become  sponsor  for  it,  then 
that  person  or  organization  should  reserve  the 
right  of  criticism  and  emendation  in  raising  or 
lowering  the  work  to  the  required  standard. 

A  book  club  must  rest  its  laurels  upon  the 
merit  of  its  issues,  and  there  is  no  such  thing 
possible  as  shifting  the  responsibility  onto  out- 

[10] 


side  persons,  any  more  than  the  business  mana- 
ger of  a  corporation  can  shift  the  blame  for  ill 
success  or  failure  upon  the  clerks  or  other  em- 
ployes working  under  his  direct  orders.  It  may 
be  true  that  our  offspring  have  their  obvious 
imperfections,  but  they  are  at  least  our  own 
kindred,  and  as  such  we  love  them  even  though 
they  be  imperfect.  If  any  of  them  are  lacking 
in  symmetry  and  beauty  we  love  them  the  more, 
because  in  this  they  partake  of  our  own  infirmi- 
ties. It  is,  moreover,  an  obligation  that  we 
would  not  evade,  even  if  we  could.  If  our  first 
publications  had  been  models  of  perfection,  we 
should  have  set  a  standard  from  which  the  suc- 
ceeding issues  would  have  been  more  likely  to 
work  downward  than  upward,  and  the  goal  of 
our  ambition  would  have  been  reached  too 
quickly. 

A  book  club  should  have  a  definite  purpose 
and  work  constantly  toward  its  accomplish- 
ment. The  club's  issues  should  typify  and  illus- 
trate that  purpose,  in  one  way  or  another.  For 
instance,  it  has  been  one  of  the  ambitions  of 
The  Bibliophile  Society  to  produce  a  series  of 
volumes  which  in  generations  to  come  shall, 
aside  from  their  literary  value,  stand  as  a  fair 
representation    of    contemporary    talent ;  —  in 

[II] 


paper,  printing,  engraving  and  general  makeup. 
We  have  not  tried  to  imitate  the  models  or 
tendencies  of  any  former  period  in  designing, 
engraving  or  printing;  nor  have  we  endeavored 
to  anticipate  the  possible  future  by  attempting 
anything  freakish,  or  out  of  harmony  with 
present  tendencies.  Our  series  of  engraved 
titlepages  is  unrivaled  in  the  world's  history  of 
book-making,  and  is  well  worthy  of  special 
notice. 

We  have  in  the  Horace  and  the  First  Year 
Book  two  direct  process  titlepages  after  pen 
drawings  by  Howard  Pyle.  These  are  of  singu- 
lar interest  and  uniqueness  because  this  impor- 
tant branch  of  art  is  entirely  distinct  and  apart 
from  the  regular  work  of  this  celebrated  artist, 
and  it  was  only  from  motives  of  personal  friend- 
ship that  he  consented  to  undertake  them. 

In  the  titlepages  to  the  Fourth  and  Fifth  Year 
Books  we  have  two  designs  by  Sidney  Smith,  in 
the  reproduction  of  which  he  has  combined  the 
two  arts  of  copperplate  etching  and  engraving. 

In  the  Andre  Journal  and  the  Lamb  Letters 
we  have  two  examples  of  the  mature  work  of 
the  renowned  engraver,  Edwin  D.  French;  one 
of  them  being  among  the  last  important  pieces 
he  did.     They  have  the  added  distinction  of 

[u] 


being  the  last  two  of  the  only  five  titlepages  he 
ever  made.  One  of  these  five,  however,  was 
never  used. 

In  the  edition  of  Theocritus,  Bion  &  Moschus 
and  the  Varick  Court  of  Inquiry  we  have  — 
engraved  on  copper  —  two  of  the  finest  titlepage 
designs  ever  made  by  the  veteran  engraver  J.  A. 
J.  Wilcox. 

In  the  Payne-Shelley  volume  and  the  Dickens- 
Beadnell  Correspondence  we  have  two  elaborate 
engraved  titlepages  by  the  well-known  designer 
and  engraver,  F.  S.  King. 

The  titlepage  to  the  Rossetti  publication  was 
etched  on  copper  by  W.  H.  W.  Bicknell,  who 
is  regarded  by  many  as  the  foremost  etcher  in 
this  country.  We  have  no  less  than  fifty  other 
examples  of  his  work  throughout  the  various 
Bibliophile  issues. 

The  Sixth  Year  Book  title  is  by  Mr.  W.  F. 
Hopson,  one  of  our  members,  who,  in  addition 
to  being  an  artist  of  exceptional  talent,  is  an 
ardent  booklover.  He  engraved  on  wood  the 
first  plate  ever  made  for  The  Bibliophile  Society, 
—  the  first  proof  of  which  is  now  on  exhibition 
here.  His  design  was  afterwards  engraved  on 
copper  by  Spenceley  and  is  used  as  a  subtitle 
in    every    publication    issued.      The    plate    is 

[13] 


changed  to  suit  the  name,  date  and  hmitation  of 
each  work.  Mr.  Hopson  is  now  doing  some 
excellent  work  in  copperplate  engraving. 

And  finally,  that  almost  unrivaled  specimen 
of  the  engraver's  art,  the  titlepage  to  our  last 
Year  Book,  is  by  the  late  J.  Winfred  Spenceley, 
who  has  but  recently  been  snatched  away  in  the 
prime  of  hfe,  and  from  the  top  notch  of  his  pro- 
fession, by  the  inexorable  hand  of  Fate.  Almost 
the  last  hours  of  his  earthly  existence  were  spent 
with  his  wasted  and  emaciated  form  bending 
over  this  very  plate.  I  called  upon  him  when  it 
was  about  half  finished  and  it  was  a  pitiful  sight 
to  behold  him  laboriously  tracing  the  lines 
(almost  the  last  he  ever  made).  He  seemed  to 
realize  that  this  was  about  his  last  work  and 
appeared  anxious  to  make  it  his  crowning 
masterpiece.  The  work  itself  bears  undeniable 
evidence  of  how  successful  he  was  in  accompKsh- 
ing  his  purpose.  His  original  sketch  with  five 
successive  working  proofs  are  now  on  exhibition 
here.  I  had  the  honor  of  suggesting  the  obvious 
changes  in  design  and  when  the  plate  was  fin- 
ished he  thanked  me  cordially  for  the  assistance 
and  said  he  regarded  it  as  about  his  best  work. 

We  have  also  endeavored  to  make  our  publi- 
cations embody  the  highest  type  of  the  printer  s 

[H] 


art,  and  have  divided  our  work  among  such 
representative  and  well-known  presses  as  the 
DeVinne  Press,  the  Riverside  Press,  the  Univer- 
sity Press,  the  Heintzmann  Press,  the  Gillis 
Press,  and  the  Plimpton  Press.  We  are  proud 
of  the  fact  that  every  original  drawing,  every 
line  of  etching  and  engraving,  and  every  page 
of  printing  are  distinctly  American  products. 
The  only  product  for  which  we  have  been  obliged 
to  go  to  foreign  shores  is  our  handmade  paper. 
Whatever  may  be  thought  or  said  of  our  publi- 
cations by  future  generations,  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  they  are  at  least  fairly  represen- 
tative of  the  talent  of  the  age  and  of  the  country 
in  which  they  were  produced,  and  as  such,  they 
will  stand  as  silent  and  indisputable  evidences 
through  generations  to  come. 

A  book  club  is  a  very  difficult  and  complicated 
piece  of  mechanism  to  manage  successfully,  — 
much   more   so   than   a   cold-blooded   business 


enterprise.  Discriminat;|f^ersons  are  usually  "^^ 
very  careful  in  selecting  companions  and  adorn- 
ments for  the  home,  where  the  refined  tastes  of 
wives  and  children  are  matters  of  consideration,  no 
less  important  than  their  own  individual  tastes. 
A  man's  Club  Books  are  usually  his  show  books, 
partly  because  of  personal  association. 

[15] 


In  entering  upon  a  business  proposition,  men 
have  but  a  single  purpose,  —  to  make  money; 
but  in  joining  a  book  club  a  man  may  be 
prompted  by  any  one  of  a  number  of  motives. 
When  The  Bibliophile  Society  was  first  organ- 
ized a  great  many  invitations  were  sent  out  to 
various  persons  known  to  be  interested  in  books, 
and  these  invitations  were  frequently  passed  on 
from  one  to  another.  In  this  way  the  prospec- 
tus sometimes  fell  into  the  hands  of  persons  of 
an  inquisitive  or  venturesome  turn  of  mind. 
One  of  the  present  members  once  told  me  that  a 
friend  of  his,  who  is  a  well-known  book-collector, 
sent  him  a  copy  of  the  original  invitation  and 
prospectus  merely  as  a  joke.  He  said  he  had 
never  bought  but  one  set  of  books  in  his  life, 
and  he  got  badly  *' stuck"  on  that.  Knowing 
of  this  unfortunate  deal,  his  book-collecting 
friend  had  never  missed  an  opportunity  to  poke 
fun  at  him;  and  in  forwarding  the  Bibliophile 
prospectus  he  endorsed  it,"  Here 's  another  chance 
for  you."  He  said  he  signed  the  application 
and  sent  it  in,  *'just  to  see  what  the  game  was." 
He  subscribed  for  the  first  issue,  and  as  he  liked 
it  he  took  the  next.  By  that  time  his  wife  began 
to  admire  the  books,  and  he  continued  his 
membership.      Both   he   and   his   wife   became 

[i6] 


interested  in  books  and  he  has  now  collected  a 
library  of  about  three  thousand  choice  volumes. 
The  strange  part  of  it  is,  that  a  couple  of  years 
later  the  friend  who  had  jokingly  sent  him  the 
papers  applied  for  membership,  and  was  on  the 
waiting  list  more  than  a  year  before  being 
admitted. 

Occasionally  we  find  men,  even  among  those 
of  good  standing  in  the  business  community, 
who  join  book  clubs  for  the  sole  purpose  of  sell- 
ing the  publications  at  a  profit.  During  the 
past  few  years  three  or  four  such  persons  have 
been  quietly  dropped  from  our  membership 
rolls,  because  it  was  discovered  that  as  soon  as 
they  got  their  books  they  sent  them  to  the  auction- 
room.  One  of  these  men  complained,  and  said 
that  he  supposed  that  he  was  fulfilling  all  mem- 
bership requirements  if  he  subscribed  for  all 
the  issues.  There  can  be  no  objection  to  a  man 
selling  his  books,  if  necessary,  but  the  member- 
ship rolls  of  book  clubs  should  be  closed  to  per- 
sons who  so  flagrantly  violate  the  principles  of 
bibliophilism.  There  is  but  little  toleration  for 
those  who  outwardly  wear  the  booklover's 
mask,  but  are  continually  gunning  for  profits 
on  their  book  possessions. 

Books  —  particularly  our  club  and  association 

[17] 


books,  on  which  a  vast  amount  of  gratuitous 
labor  is  spent  —  should  be  esteemed  with  more 
than  a  purely  mercenary  regard.  They  are  not 
made  to  serve  the  purposes  of  speculators 
(whether  club  members  or  not)  who  treat  books 
purely  as  objects  of  barter  and  traffic  (it  will  of 
course  be  understood  that  this  remark  does  not 
apply  to  legitimate  dealers) ;  they  are  made  to 
gratify  the  book-loving  propensities  of  biblio- 
philes, and  if  they  accomplish  this  end,  they 
serve  faithfully  the  cause  for  which  they  are 
designed. 

The  fact  that  club  books,  or  in  fact  any  books, 
are  occasionally  bid  up  to  ridiculous  figures  in 
the  auction-room  does  not  furnish  a  standard 
by  which  their  value,  either  as  books  or  as 
merchandise,  may  be  accurately  measured.  It 
is  to  be  regretted  that  highly  factitious  values 
are  frequently  set  upon  books  in  the  market, 
for  thus  they  are  apt  to  come  to  be  regarded  — 
even  by  bibliophiles  of  the  genuine  sect  —  as 
transportable  assets  of  merchandise,  rather  than 
as  companions  and  permanent  fixtures  of  the 
home  with  which  to  gratify  the  higher  and 
nobler  senses.  The  restriction  of  a  club  mem- 
bership, and  of  the  number  of  copies  printed 
of  each  publication,  is  not  necessarily  designed 

[i8] 


to  make  the  books  rare  or  high-priced  in  the 
market. 

Speaking  of  cold-blooded  commercialism,  I 
once  received  a  letter  from  a  member  of  The 
Bibliophile  Society,  saying  that  he  had  been 
offered  ;?200  for  his  membership,  and  asked  if 
I  thought  the  Council  would  be  willing  to  ratify 
the  transfer.  A  few  years  ago  when  the  Andre 
Journal  was  announced,  a  member  —  well-to- 
do  in  the  business  community  —  wrote,  saying 
that  he  was  not  particularly  interested  in  the 
work,  as  he  did  n't  care  for  early  American 
history,  and  that  he  would  be  willing  to  sell  his 
membership  subscription  rights  on  that  work 
for  ;^io.  His  initiation  fee  was  promptly  re- 
funded to  him. 

It  is  a  rather  singular  fact  that  book  clubs 
seem  to  feel  themselves  called  upon  to  monop- 
olize the  issue  of  bibliographies  and  books 
about  books.  It  would  be  much  more  exciting 
and  profitable  for  the  bibliophile,  from  the 
standpoint  of  entertainment,  to  make  a  collec- 
tion of  dictionaries  of  all  the  languages.  Pos- 
sibly once  in  a  dozen  years  the  voracious  collector 
piay  consult  his  bibliographical  volume,  but  for 
the  average  booklover  a  copy  of  a  Polish  dic- 
tionary would  be  much  more  attractive,  because 

[19] 


he  could  at  least  make  up  some  fantastic  story 
about  it,  and  his  friends  could  n't  dispute  it. 

There  is  sometimes  a  fine  distinction  to  be 
drawn  between  the  hook-collector  and  the  book- 
lover.  Most  booklovers  are  collectors  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  but  many  collectors  who 
hoard  books  in  great  numbers  are  not  book- 
lovers  in  the  true  sense.  The  contents,  and 
perhaps  the  exteriors,  of  their  books  are  as 
entirely  strange  to  them  as  though  they  were 
printed  in  Chinese  characters.  It  may  be  as- 
sumed that  the  primary  object  in  printing  a 
book  is  that  it  may  afford  entertainment  or 
instruction,  or  both,  to  the  reader.  Why,  then, 
should  book  clubs  insist  upon  directing  their 
efforts  along  the  line  of  books  that  are  the  least 
readable  ?  Perhaps  we  do  not  all  read  our  books 
{personally  I  must  plead  guilty  to  not  having 
read  one-quarter  of  mine),  but  we  delight  in 
promising  ourselves  that  sometime  in  the  heyday 
of  our  old  age  we  shall  get  around  to  them  all. 
For  my  part,  however,  the  bibliographies  will 
be  reserved  till  the  last,  with  the  fond  hope  that 
I  shall  never  reach  them. 

Those  in  charge  of  club  publications  assume 
grave  responsibilities.  They  should  remember 
that  the  mere  fact  that  a  volume  is  issued  by  a 

[20] 


book  club,  no  matter  how  firmly  its  reputation 
be  established,  affords  no  adequate  reason  why 
the  world  at  large,  or  even  the  members  them- 
selves, should  give  it  any  particular  notice,  if 
it  can  claim  no  distinction  other  than  that  of 
being  a  club  book.  Each  publication  should 
lend  credit  to  the  club,  instead  of  becoming  its 
debtor  by  having  to  borrow  the  club's  credit  to 
sustain  itself.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  let  the 
lay  members  display  a  certain  measure  of  toler- 
ance, and  not  be  too  severe  in  their  criticism. 
If  the  gratuitous  work  of  amateurs  falls  below 
that  of  well-paid  professionals,  it  is  nothing 
more  than  is  to  be  expected.  It  is  not  probable, 
—  indeed,  it  is  scarcely  possible,  —  that  any 
issue  will  appeal  alike  to  all  the  members;  this 
would  be  too  much  to  expect  of  any  publica- 
tion, no  matter  how  meritorious.  There  is  a 
wide  diversity  of  taste  and  opinion  to  be  pam- 
pered, and  the  best  that  can  be  hoped  for  is  that 
the  majority  may  be  pleased.  An  appreciative 
membership  will  encourage  the  workers  in  a 
book  club,  and  the  labor  is  made  less  irksome 
by  an  occasional  expression  of  appreciation. 
Indeed,  it  would  be  impossible  for  a  publication 
committee  to  do  good  work  lone-handed  with- 
out the  moral  support  and  encouragement  of  the 

[21] 


members.    Fair-minded  criticism  likewise  adds 
stimulus  to  the  work  in  almost  equal  measure. 

A  very  common  mistake  that  book  clubs  make 
is  that  many  of  their  books  are  cumbersome 
and  of  irregular  and  inconvenient  size.  Some- 
times an  awkward  size  results  from  some  neces- 
sity, but  more  often  not.  The  rules  of  good 
taste  and  convenience  are  frequently  violated 
by  setting  a  large  solid  page  in  small  type,  with 
insufficient  margins,  and  having  twice  as  many 
pages  as  there  should  be  in  a  volume.  It  is  not 
quantity  that  the  booklover  looks  to,  —  it  is 
quality.  More  than  half  the  joy  of  possessing, 
handling  and  reading  a  book  is  lost  to  the  book- 
lover  if  the  size  be  of  awkward  and  inconsistent 
proportions  and  the  pages  not  properly  set  and 
spaced.  The  pleasure  of  handling  and  reading 
a  beautiful  book  is  trivial  as  compared  with  the 
enjoyment  of  showing  it  to  admiring  friends, 
especially  if  it's  a  book  that  can't  be  bought  in 
the  market.  How  much  it  adds  to  the  joy  of 
possession  when  we  can  lay  out  a  beautiful  book 
for  our  friend  to  feast  his  eyes  upon,  knowing  all 
the  while  (and  not  forgetting  to  tell  him)  that  a 
copy  could  n't  be  bought  in  the  market  for  love 
or  money !  This  is  not  selfishness  —  it  is  a 
permissible  heritage  of  the  booklover's  pride. 

[22] 


The  book  club  is,  as  It  rightfully  should  be, 
an  important  agency  in  promoting  good-fellow- 
ship and  a  fraternal  feeling  among  those  of 
kindred  tastes,  whether  united  by  personal 
association  or  only  through  bonds  of  sympathy; 
and  in  raising  the  standard  of  bookmaking  to 
its  proper  sphere,  in  keeping  with  the  advance- 
ments of  the  age.  In  the  proper  exercise  of 
these  functions  its  beneficent  influence  becomes 
general,  not  only  among  the  members,  but 
throughout  the  entire  community  of  booklovers. 
Its  publications  are  sought  by  many  collectors 
outside  the  membership,  who,  though  perhaps 
lacking  in  sentimental  feeling  toward  the  books, 
are  none  the  less  appreciative  of  their  merits. 

It  could  be  possible  for  a  friendly  rivalry  to 
exist  among  book  clubs,  but  there  can  scarcely 
be  such  a  thing  as  competition  among  them.  In 
this  commercial  age  of  cheap  printing,  cheap 
methods  of  illustration,  and  keen  competition 
in  nearly  all  lines  of  industry,  most  book  pub- 
lishers appear  no  longer  to  endeavor  to  see  how 
beautifully  they  may  adorn  their  books  with 
illustrative  or  emblematic  titlepages,  and  etched 
or  engraved  illustrations  on  copper  or  steel,  but 
rather,  how  cheaply  and  how  quickly  they  can 
make  them  ready  for  the  market.    It  is  a  lament- 

[23] 


able  fact  that  the  names  of  the  few  good  engrav- 
ers and  etchers  that  we  have  in  this  country  are 
scarcely  known  among  the  pubHshers.  Too 
little  encouragement  is  given  by  publishers  to 
this  important  branch  of  the  Fine  Arts.  Indeed, 
I  have  been  told  by  some  of  the  best  of  these  art- 
ists that  they  would  gladly  engage  in  some  other 
more  popular  and  remunerative  line  of  work. 

It  devolves  upon  our  book  clubs  to  lend  all 
possible  encouragement  to  the  highest  qualities 
of  the  arts  employed  in  bookmaking,  —  in  doing 
which  we  not  only  enrich  ourselves,  but  we 
thereby  endow  posterity  with  a  heritage  that 
will  live  as  a  testimony  to  our  labors  long  after 
we  are  forgotten. 

Gentlehien,  I  would  not  say  a  word  that  could 
be  construed  as  reflecting  upon  the  past  achieve- 
ments of  this  club,  for  its  publications  would 
silently  refute  any  such  insinuation ;  but  as  one 
of  the  members,  I  should  be  proud  if  we  could 
begin  a  new  and  more  productive  era  in  pubHca- 
tion  work.  You  notice  I  say  we^  because, 
although  a  non-resident  member,  I  do  not  feel 
myself  such  a  stranger  to  the  club  and  its  wel- 
fare as  to  justify  the  use  of  the  pronoun  your. 
The  social  advantages  of  these  beautiful  club 
rooms  are  not  within  easy  reach  of  the  non- 

[24] 


resident  members,  and  those  residing  at  far 
distant  points,  who  help  support  this  club  by 
their  annual  dues,  pay  this  tribute  chiefly  for 
the  privilege  of  subscribing  for  the  club's  pub- 
lications. The  same  is  doubtless  true  of  some 
of  the  resident  members,  who  perhaps  do  not 
make  frequent  use  of  the  club  rooms.  It  there- 
fore devolves  upon  the  publication  committee 
to  keep  up  its  activities  in  order  that  no  member, 
either  resident  or  non-resident,  may  have  oc- 
casion to  ask  himself  why  he  is  a  member  of 
this  club,  without  finding  a  satisfactory  answer 
expressed  by  the  pubhcations  themselves. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  a  book 
club  will  just  run  itself  by  its  own  momentum. 
The  theory  of  perpetual  motion  has  never  been 
successfully  applied  to  our  work,  which  must 
be  kept  under  a  constant  head  of  steam.  Fine 
books  are  the  outgrowth  of  intelligent  thought 
and  artistic  talent  brought  into  harmonious  com- 
bination, and  while  the  finished  product  gives 
but  a  faint  idea  of  the  thousand  and  one  details 
and  vexations  encountered  in  assembling  the 
various  arts  during  the  process  of  evolution,  yet 
it  is  the  only  visible  sign  by  which  the  members 
and  the  world  at  large  become  acquainted  with 
the  ultimate  achievements  of  our  collaboration. 

[25] 


It  is  by  our  books,  rather  than  our  ambitions, 
that  we  shall  be  known  and  judged  by  con- 
temporary and  future  generations. 

The  most  important  sinews  of  a  book  club 
consist  of  an  active  and  intelligent  publication 
committee,  backed  by  the  financial  and  moral 
support  of  the  members,  and  this  financial  and 
moral  support  will  not  be  found  wanting  if  the 
work  of  the  committee  justifies  it. 


[26]- 


PRINTED     PRIVATELY     FOR     MR.      HARPER     BY 
THE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.   S.   A. 


i"' 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

(mthelas^date  stamped  below. 


.  r347 
DEC    23  1947 

:     DEC  13^9'^^ 

]  DEC  2  8  1351 
1 

^       OCi  1  6  1952 
^CT  ]  y  1953 

NOV  1 9  1964 

LD  21-100m-12,'46(A2012si6)4120 


Gaylamount 

Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gaylord  Bros..  Inc. 

Stockton,  Calif. 
T.M.  Reg.  U.S.  pat. Off. 


M85667    Z'^ 

H5 


OQ 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


